Linux Overclocking For GeForce GTX 400 / FermI?

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Overclocking For GeForce GTX 400 / FermI?

Next week we will finally be able to deliver performance numbers for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 "Fermi" graphics cards as we take a look at the GeForce GTX 460 that was kindly sent over by NVIDIA. Overall it's a very interesting card and great performer on Linux, but if you're already a Fermi owner (ideally after buying the hardware with our shopping links) and have been searching the Internet like we had done wondering why CoolBits isn't working on Fermi hardware, well, we now have the answer...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODUyNw

[spikestabber]

It would be nice if you could provide numbers for 460's in SLI too.

I think you'll find there are issues with the drivers that need fixed.
SLI is much slower than a single card with Fermi in Linux on every game I've tried.

[deanjo]

It would be nice if you could provide numbers for 460's in SLI too.

I think you'll find there are issues with the drivers that need fixed.
SLI is much slower than a single card with Fermi in Linux on every game I've tried.

There are reasons for that
1) first no profile support like there is in windows for specific apps,
2) there are hardly any games in linux that are not cpu limited. Once you hit the cpu limit adding a faster graphics setup is not going to gain you anything. Even Unigines benches are, for some reason, cpu limited. If you run their benchmarks for example, one core of the CPU will peg 100% when running in OGL mode. This happens in linux and windows. For whatever reason in windows and running DX mode on these same benches the load is distributed somewhat more across more then one core thus allowing the graphics setup to work harder and exploiting items such as SLi / Crossfire.

[jmcharron]

It would be nice if you could provide numbers for 460's in SLI too.

I think you'll find there are issues with the drivers that need fixed.
SLI is much slower than a single card with Fermi in Linux on every game I've tried.

I have a gtx465 and second one coming in the mail atm. I hope its not basically useless in SLI mode under linux.

[spikestabber]

There are reasons for that
1) first no profile support like there is in windows for specific apps,
2) there are hardly any games in linux that are not cpu limited. Once you hit the cpu limit adding a faster graphics setup is not going to gain you anything. Even Unigines benches are, for some reason, cpu limited. If you run their benchmarks for example, one core of the CPU will peg 100% when running in OGL mode. This happens in linux and windows. For whatever reason in windows and running DX mode on these same benches the load is distributed somewhat more across more then one core thus allowing the graphics setup to work harder and exploiting items such as SLi / Crossfire.

If you seen Phoronix's old benchmarks of SLI on older cards, most games were still quite a bit faster faster or at least almost the same framerates.

My problem with 2x 480 in SLI is the framerates are less than half of what they are with a SINGLE card. Don't tell me thats because of CPU usage or profiles. Its clearly a driver issue.

[Michael]

It would be nice if you could provide numbers for 460's in SLI too.

I think you'll find there are issues with the drivers that need fixed.
SLI is much slower than a single card with Fermi in Linux on every game I've tried.

Sadly it's unlikely that NVIDIA will send me another identical card

[Lukian]

I finally purchased a GTX 460. So I won't pester Michael about updating the GT240 article anymore.

Ideally, I need a CPU upgrade to go with it, as I'm using an AMD X2 4400+ 2.3GHz dual-core, but that can wait till the new CPU's in Q1, particularly as I need a CPU under 65W.

[brent]

You got a GTX 460, but still care about CPU TDP?

[Lukian]

Yes. Lower power consumption is always good. There was no option until the 460 thanks to the revised core. I'd probably prefer a 450 but those aren't out till later and circumstances dictated I had to buy a card today. My 380w antec is pretty close to max. So I need a cpu less than or equal to my current one in power usage.

[jmcharron]

What socket are you running?